Newsagents outraged by need to pay for papers they don't want

Newsagents across Northern Ireland are up in arms about a wholesaler's demand that they must pay a £15-a-week carriage charge for newspapers they do not want.

The wholesaler - EM News, part of the Scottish-based John Menzies group - is planning to impose the new charge from 1 September.

The row arises from the fact that News Speed, the Belfast company that currently distributes the News UK titles - The Sun, The Times and Sunday Times - is handing over its contract to EM News.

Traditionally, a number of northern Irish newsagents have not stocked News UK papers, partly because of The Sun's notorious slur on Liverpool fans after the 1989 Hillsborough tragedy, partly due to its virulent anti-nationalist political line during the Troubles.

That wasn't a problem for News Speed. It simply didn't deliver to anti-Sun outlets. But Menzies doesn't see it that way.

Now that it has assumed responsibility for the News UK papers it has decided to impose the carriage charge even if the newsagents refuse to take the titles.

It is also the case that the £15 charge will be levied across the board, whether the shop is a small outlet or a supermarket, and regardless of the number of copies involved.

The trade body that represents the shops, the National Federation of Retail Newsagents, regards this as disproportionately unfair to smaller shops and is calling for an urgent inquiry into what it regards as "wholesaler monopoly abuse."

Its chief executive, Paul Baxter, has visited Stormont to lobby for support from Assembly members, calling it "a totally unacceptable charge" and "wholly unethical."

He said: "There is no reason why EM News could not have simply added the value of News UK titles to the retailer's account for calculating carriage charges, except that this would not have extracted as much money for them.

"The NFRN is considering all political and commercial channels to challenge such a diabolical move."

So what do Menzies say about this extraordinary state of affairs? A PR acting for the company said: "The addition of the News UK titles to our existing portfolio has had a significant impact on the volumes of newspapers and magazines we distribute.

"For the majority of customers the new arrangement is more cost effective than before."

Even if that is the case, I asked, what about the minority who do not wish to have News UK titles? Surely it is an unfair burden to charge them?

She replied that the carriage charge "is not a tariff solely on News UK titles but follows a review of the overall charging template, which is why customers who don't receive News UK titles are included."